Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease

Alzheimer's protein may have been passed to patients via growth hormone

(Newser) -
Alzheimer's isn't exactly contagious, but a protein that goes on to form the disease was perhaps passed to patients during surgery, meaning there could be an acquired form of the disease, a new study finds. UK researchers, who describe their finding in Nature , studied the brains of eight...
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Multiple system atrophy quickly destroys the brain

(Newser) -
Multiple system atrophy, or MSA, is a rare and horrible disease that will destroy your brain and inevitably kill you, and the study of it has now yielded a major breakthrough in our understanding of brain diseases. Researchers have discovered that MSA is caused by a prion, a kind of...
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But Texas sees 'no public health concerns,' thinks victim picked it up abroad

(Newser) -
The Centers for Disease Control is confirming the fourth-ever American death from variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease, a degenerative brain disorder linked to mad cow disease. But before you get worried, know that the state of Texas finds "no Texas public health concerns or threats associated with this case." The...
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NC hospital failed to properly sterilize tools

(Newser) -
Some 18 neurosurgical patients in North Carolina have been given the terrifying news that they may have been exposed to a rare and fatal brain disease because of a surgical mix-up. A patient with suspected Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease —a condition similar to "mad cow" disease—was operated on at...
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But sterilizing wouldn't have eliminated Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease

(Newser) -
As many as 13 brain surgery patients are being monitored for symptoms of a "rapidly progressive and always fatal" brain disease they may have gotten while under the knife. Instruments contaminated with Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease, a rare, incurable disorder similar to mad cow disease, were used on eight patients at...
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